Girls’ water polo makes a splash in upper league

After moving up to the tougher De Anza League, the girls’ water polo team did not expect to win many games.

But early-season victories have led the girls to realize they might be competitive after all. But such hot victories do not come without cold hard challenges that they face.

Although the girls lost to Los Gatos on Sept. 17, they took the next two games in a dominant fashion. They blistered past Lynbrook 22-0 and carried that momentum to their next game against Palo Alto and came out on top 8-2.

Even though the girls lost to Gunn 14-3 on Oct. 3, players like the direction they're heading in.

“All 13 girls played their best and are all crucial to our success in the past few games,” Coach Rafael Alapont said. “We have bonded much more over the past few weeks and will continue to get better.”

The closure of the pool, due to a heating problem caused by a broken boiler, has put the team back some steps with not being able to practice in the proper environment. 

“It's been a setback, but so far we've been able to deal with it,” said junior set Mackenzie Rosenthal. 

The team has been holding practices at West Valley’s pool to get in as much practice as they can. They even held land practices to stay in shape for the upcoming games. 

Also, the team has had to move its home games to the opposing teams high school because of the pool shutdown. 

“We are moving on the right track and just need to take it one problem at a time,” Alapont said.